Answer:
While maintaining a successful medical practice, Gilbert carried out extensive research into electricity and magnetism. Very little about these phenomena was understood when he began his experiments. The basic magnetic properties of lodestone (magnetic iron ore) were familiar, the magnetic compass had been in use for some time by navigators, and the amber effect (now called the triboelectric effect), by which amber and certain other materials acquire a static charge via friction, was generally known. But no one could adequately explain how or why such things worked. Gilbert’s investigations led him to develop a number of his own theories.
Step-by-step explanation: